This Uttar Pradesh quiz on Folk Music, Dance and Theatre (Kathak, Nautanki, Raslila) puts 10 multiple-choice questions to you, the verified MCQs published with GK24's note on the topic. Every question carries a full explanation of why the correct option is right and why the other options are wrong, so you learn the fact behind the answer rather than the letter. Attempt it right after reading the note, keep to the timer, and use the explanations at the end to mark what needs another look. Sit it again before the exam as a quick revision of the topic.
10 questions with answers and explanations
Which gharana of Kathak developed in the court of Nawab Wajid Ali Shah of Awadh?
The Lucknow gharana of Kathak took shape in the court of Nawab Wajid Ali Shah of Awadh, who was himself a dancer and a composer of thumris under the pen name Akhtarpiya.
Read the full explanation →Which instrument dominates a Nautanki performance?
Nautanki is played on an open platform to an audience of hundreds, often through the whole night, so it needs an instrument that carries.
Read the full explanation →The Charkula dance belongs to which region of Uttar Pradesh?
Charkula is danced in the Braj country around Mathura, where a woman balances a tiered wooden pyramid hung with rows of lighted earthen lamps, traditionally counted as one hundred and eight, on her head and moves to Rasiya songs of Krishna.
Read the full explanation →Ramlila, the traditional performance of the Ramayana, was placed by UNESCO on which list?
Ramlila is a living performance tradition rather than a building or a document, so it was inscribed in 2008 on the list that UNESCO maintains for intangible heritage, the same list that carries Kutiyattam, Vedic chanting and Ramman from India.
Read the full explanation →Which pair of towns are the two main centres and styles of Nautanki?
Nautanki grew into two recognised styles, the Hathras style in which the sung music and the verse metres dominate and the audience comes for the singing, and the Kanpur style in which dialogue, acting and stagecraft carry more of the play.
Read the full explanation →Bismillah Khan of Varanasi, honoured with the Bharat Ratna, was a master of which instrument?
Ustad Bismillah Khan of Varanasi took the shehnai, until then an instrument of weddings and temple gateways, on to the concert platform and made it a solo classical instrument.
Read the full explanation →The Marris College of Hindustani Music, now Bhatkhande Sanskriti Vishwavidyalaya, was founded at Lucknow in 1926 by
Bhatkhande was the musicologist who collected and notated Hindustani compositions and arranged the ragas into the ten thaat system still taught in schools.
Read the full explanation →Alha, the heroic ballad of Alha and Udal, is the folk song tradition of which region?
Alha is sung in the Bundelkhandi region of southern Uttar Pradesh and the adjoining districts of Madhya Pradesh, especially around Mahoba, and it narrates the battles of the warrior brothers Alha and Udal of the Chandela court.
Read the full explanation →Raslila, the dance drama on the life of Krishna in which the actors are called swarups, belongs to which region?
Raslila enacts the childhood and the rasa of Krishna in the land of his legend, mixing sung verse, dance and spoken dialogue.
Read the full explanation →Which Nawab of Awadh, writing under the pen name Akhtarpiya, composed thumris and devised the Rahas dance drama?
The last Nawab of Awadh was a trained dancer and a prolific writer who composed thumris under the pen name Akhtarpiya, among them the celebrated Babul mora naihar chhuto hi jaye, and who devised the Rahas, a court dance drama on the Krishna theme that drew on Raslila.
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